John D. Porcari is senior vice president and national director of strategic consulting for Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global professional-services, planning, engineering and construction-services firm. Previously, he served for four and a half years as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, acting as the department's chief operating officer with day-to-day responsibility for DOT's 10 operating administrations, 55,000 employees and $77 billion operating budget.
Prior to being nominated by President Obama to the federal post, Porcari twice served as secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, overseeing the only state-level DOT that includes statewide highway, transit, aviation, port, bridge and tunnel authority, and motor-vehicle-licensing modes. He also served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the University of Maryland, and has held a variety of economic-development positions at the local- and state-government levels.
